A modular scaffolding system comprises, inter alia, standards, ledgers and diagonals. Usually, these elements are manufactured from steel. A standard can comprise an elongate pipe part having at a first end a male end and having at an opposite, second end a female end. Different standards can thus be linked together or “stacked” to form columns which, with a scaffold in an assembled condition, extend in substantially vertical direction. Each of the standards can, with the aid of, for instance, a welded connection, be provided along a circumference with one or more rosettes or flanges, so that a column assembled from standards comprises such rosettes over its entire length/height at fixed mutual distances (e.g. 0.5 m). Each of the rosettes can function as connecting point or node for ledgers and diagonals. To this end, the ledgers and diagonals can be provided at their respective ends with a connection head which is designed for engaging a rosette, and which is fixedly attachable thereto with the aid of a wedge that can be driven through both the connection head and a wedge hole provided in the rosette. A wedge is preferably non-detachably connected to a connection head in order to promote rapid assembly of a scaffold and to prevent the wedge becoming lost.
A ledger can comprise an elongate pipe part having a connection head at both ends thereof. Both the pipe part and the connection heads can be steel products. Nowadays, assembling the ledger from the pipe part and the connection heads is done by welding the untreated, so-called “black”, connection heads to the likewise untreated or black pipe part, and then hot dip galvanizing the ledger both internally and externally. With hot dip galvanizing, the ledger is submerged for some time in a bath of liquid zinc at a temperature of approximately 450° C. As a result, on the ledger, zinc alloy layers form and, right on an outside, a pure zinc layer, which layers protect the ledgers from corrosion. A drawback of hot dip galvanizing is that on the product leaving the zinc bath drops and other drip residues can form. After hot dip galvanizing, the ledger must be cleared of these zinc residues, to remove, inter alia, sharp points/edges from the ledger, and to prevent the zinc residues causing tolerance or fitting problems upon assembly of a scaffolding. Further, after removal of the zinc residues, in order to complete the ledger, to each of the connection heads a wedge is mounted.
Both hot dip galvanizing the ledger, including the step required afterwards of removing the zinc residues, and mounting wedges to otherwise completed ledgers are relatively time-consuming, and therefore costly.